Totoro and Kiki merchandise make this a great start to the year.

One of the things we love about Japanese New Year is the chance to get our hands on as many fukubukuro lucky grab bags as possible, and one that’s always on the top of our wish list comes from Donguri Kyowakoku.

The store, which means “Acorn Republic” in English, is famous for selling official Studio Ghibli merchandise, and at New Year they stuff their lucky bags with so many goodies that it’s always great value for money.

And to add to the fun, you can never be too sure what treasure lies inside, as the contents often differ from bag to bag, so it really is the luck of the grab on New Year’s Day!

We picked up a 3,000 yen (US$27.56) bag, and this is what we found inside:

・Kikis’ Delivery Service blanket
・My Neighbour Totoro towel – small
・My Neighbour Totoro towel – large
・Cat Bus Aluminium Lunch Box
・Notepads x 6
・My Neighbour Totoro coin purse pouch
・My Neighbour Totoro clear shitajiki
・Mary and the Witch’s Flower keyring

That’s a total of eight Ghibli goods for just 3,000 yen! As always, an incredible once-a-year deal and there was nothing here we didn’t like or wouldn’t use, especially the Kiki blanket, with cute images of Jiji, which we threw on our lap straight away.

Another item we were sure to use every day in the office was this set of adorable little notepads, featuring characters from some of our favourite Ghibli films.

▼ And this cute Cat Bus lunchbox was the perfect size for a bento lunch.

Shitajiki (sometimes called “pencil boards”) are common in Japan, especially with students, who use these plastic boards when writing in notebooks, placing them under pages to prevent indentations on the next sheet of paper in the book.

▼ This shitajiki came adorned with images from My Neighbour Totoro.

▼ Totoro also made a grand appearance on these gorgeous handtowels.

▼ And this cute coin pouch

Mary and the Witch’s Flower might not be a Studio Ghibli film, but it was made by Studio Ponoc, a production house founded by former Studio Ghibli employees Yoshiaki Nishimura and Hiromasa Yonebayashi. So we were delighted to see this adorable little Mary and the Witch’s Flower keyring turn up in our fukubukuro!

The Donguri Kyowakoku lucky bag impressed us again this year with its great value and adorable merchandise selection. After falling in love with their grab bags over the past three years, we’re sure this will be on our list of must-buy fukubukuro again next year!

Photos © SoraNews24